There’s so much to share and also so much not to, because you know our parents and grandparents lived in an age where no one knew what anyone else was up to unless they lived next door or phoned them or sent them a letter.
But here we are. In this digital age. So, big news - we built a house at the lake. Basically our dream retirement lake home. And we aren’t retired. But life is short friends and we’ve had the wheels of this current plan in motion for far longer than these past few years. But we did it. Our largest goal. Our biggest dream.
It's been an all-consuming idea for years, a "what if…” that we could not stop thinking about. Living at the lake was the end goal for a long time, the retirement dream Will and I would live after our kids had grown and flown, but as we witnessed more and more of our family and friends' lives cut short we asked ourselves, “What if we decided to start living our dream now and not wait 10 more years? What if we did this now and not later? What if we did this while our kids could still make some lake memories?”
I know how lucky we are to be here.
It has taken grit and sacrifice to build this life, to live where we do.
I try to share a lot of behind the scenes stories and our literal hands in the dirt (or shipping or sheetrock, etc.) because I don’t want anyone to think “oh she has it easy.” Nothing worth having comes easy I don’t think. But it does require sacrifice. We’ve sacrificed many things over the years - mostly free time and new stuff so we could build our dream cabin at the lake.
We essentially did this by 1) selling a rental property we had - we remodeled it ourselves - and sold it at exactly the right time at the height of the pandemic housing bubble. 2) Downsizing/rightsizing - I heard the term “Rightsizing” the other day and I loved it. We began a few years ago to really start getting rid of stuff - donating, selling, etc. so much in an attempt to be able to live in a much smaller small. 3) SAVING, saving and more saving so that when the opportunity did arise to purchase a lake lot we could move quickly.
We are going to be selling what we thought was our forever home - the home where we raised our family and that we remodeled and added onto with our own hands. We are trading 4000+ square feet and a huge barn and 5 acres of land for the smallish lake house we built on a tiny, narrow (25’ wide) plot of land that had been abandoned and neglected for decades. We have a little less than 1800 sqft of indoor living space - 2 small bedrooms (plus a bunkroom), 2 small bathrooms and a small 2 car garage. We went from 2 home offices to a kitchen island. Acres to take care of to a tiny yard/garden and community trails to help maintain. Trading a large mortgage for no mortgage. Trading high utility bills for an almost off the grid home (well water, solar power, wood stove, etc.) We rightsized for us. We built a perfect home we can grow old in together. That our kids and family and friends can visit.
The other thing I guess I will share is that we have always worked from home. We have run our events business, our organizing business, a former paper goods company, a boat company and now Commit30 from our house. This allowed us to pour our time & money into our property vs paying for expensive warehouse/office space in town but more importantly it allowed both of us to be home together with the kids while they were growing up. And I wouldn’t trade that for the world. BUT it was hard to escape work - the door into the garage/work/shipping area was always right there - orders to ship, boxes to recycle, customers to respond to. And my cute home office was right off the kitchen - with always a stack of work to be done. But now we have actual physical space / distance between HOME and WORK. 10 whole miles. And it is glorious. We put our laptops away at night - tucked into our tiny pantry. We have to DRIVE to work during normal working hours while the kids are at school. This has had the greatest impact on my central nervous system and my overall health and wellbeing. This separation between work and home has been the greatest gift to ourselves.
So anyway, that’s why so many of you have messaged me asking - is that your kitchen? It looks different? It is different. But it is home.
Thanks as always for cheering us on - during all of our businesses. While raising kids. While working together and staying married.
Congrats! What a view you have--water and mountains. It just doesn't get any better! I know this is probably creepy, but I'd love to see some pics of your house if you're comfortable sharing.
Jenny - I absolutely love this and love it for you and your family. Making your dreams come true and taking care of you. Keep inspiring!!